Press and daily Dakotaian. (Yankton, Dakota Territory [S.D.]) 1880-1889, 1887-02-07
PLANTERS OF RICE.
GEORGIA FARMERS WHO SAY THE
TIMES ARE DULL NOWADAYS.

TIMES ARE DULL NOWADAYS.
Contrast Between the Old Days and tho
New-Maohinery Gradually Finding a
Place-Reapers in Place Of SickIes.
Some General Information.
Especial correspondence
SAVANNAH, Jan. 3L-Rice planters are
great GROWERS. They are always complain
ing Of something. II It Isn't the weauhe., 1t
S the labor, and if it isn't the labor it's the
price of rice. TIL truth Is they have pretty
good reason to complain. They are not as
prosperous us they were when they owned
their labor. Once they were regarded as the
nabobs Of all this section of the country.
They had their fine houses and drove their
fine horses. They went north or to Europe
in the summer Life had many pleasures
and few troubles for them. They are cult
waited gentlemen now, as a rule, but their
pocketbooks are rot as fat as they were thirty
years ago.
But why the rice planting interest is not as
prosperous now as it used to be, is hard to ex-
plain. Perhaps, after all, it is more prosper
Gus than the rice planters would nave the
world believe, Those who make a living by
filling the soil are incliaed to look on the
gloomy side of things.
The methods of the cultivation of rice are
gradually changing. The old planters re-
member very well when they had neither
plow nor harrow. and when the planting was
done with the hoe and the hand. The soil
was turned up and the trenches were made
with a hoe. Tbs rice was drilled in the
trenches by OF course the planters had
to have plenty of help. About all of them
owned their labor, and, hence, they did not
realize how much their crops cost to make
them. In those days they considered that
about ten bands were necessary to make an
acre of rice. The hoe was kept moving
pretty steadily until the crop needed no
further attention. When the rice ripened
the sickle was used to harvest it. 1t can be
readily seen how slow the process was,
and yet the planters were contented,
and the negroes We're apparently happy.
Now only about half as many
hands are required to. an acre. The
mule, pillow, harrow and drill nave largely
superseded the negro and thehoe. Theplanter
now talks about the number of plows he is
running, instead of the number of hoes. His
fields nre prepared quickly, and the rice is
put into the ground by machine. The hoe
is still useful, however, in cutting tho grass
out of the growing rice. The water does
much of that, because the fields, which are
almost always below the water eoIrces, are
flooded ct stated periods during the growing
season.
How long it was before the planter would
permit n machine to cut their rice! "Oh.
no" they said, sit will never do to let a reap
ing machine enter our rice. fields, the riee i
so lightly attached to the stalk that more
than half of it will be LOST Their fears
were overcome, however, and now the sickle
is gradually becoming a forgotten instru,
ment in rico culture. During the past sea.
son there were planters who even used the
self binding reapers. If any one had sug.
gestcd such q thing ten years ago he would
have been regarded by rice planters as fit fol
a l1natic asylum.
What d remarkable change has taken place
in the market value of the rice landsl When
they weresworked by slave labor they were
assessed all the way from Sl00 to 1900 ar
acre. Now the best of them do not comman
more than $50. They are. not, as productive
now as they We're when first placed under cul
%tivation, but they are still very rich. The,
iS Aoh sApO AirCiS aiit StlRlleI SUfGaUlS, anS
are comparatively worthless for anything bu
rice. Under slave labor they yielded fror,
fifty to sixty bushels an acre, and under FIRE.
labor they yield from thirty to forty. Their,
is no doubt that the cultivation under ,slav,
labor was in every respect superior, but it /
probable that If fertilizers We're used NOR
freely the lands would recover their orisina
fertility.
The negroes on the rice plantations are
queer lot. They see little OF civilization an,
!, occupy a much lower place in the scale of in
telligence than the cotton plantation negroes
Those not familiar with them find it OK
tremely difficult to understand them. TIL
, malaria of the flooded rice fields does not at
, feet them injuriously. It appears to agre
, with them as we'll as it does with the alliga
, tors. What shiftless, lazy creatures the
: arei They don't care much whether the
work or not. The rivers and creeks affor
! them an abundance of fish ard oysters. an
. doubtless they are not often without rick
They are given tasks just as in slave time:
: but they cannot be made to do their wor
well. If complaint is found, with their wor
:, they will hunt for planters who will let ther
do pretty much as they please. What pay d
: they gets Well, not a great deal. Abou
fifty cents a day, except at harvest tifnt
n Wuci lHSJ SeC d'ilItie more
: There is one thing connected with rics i
which there has been no advancement in hal
a century, and that is the pounding Of i
! The same comparatively crude methods whic
= were employed by the mills when they wei
i first established, to change the rough rice t
: clean rice, are employed by them now. I'll
inventive faculty of the present day has lei
this field entirely alone.
aOf course the rice planters are all prote,
tionists; they believe they couldn't live will
e out a protective duty on rice. At presen
a however, they are not bothered by rice fro1
v abroad. Competition to the Georgia an
South Carolina states comes from Louisian,
: where a lower grade of rico is producet
Z Notwithstanding the complaints of the plan
= ers and the low price OF rice lands, it IS n,
r ticeable that plantations which have not bee
n worked since the war are being taken up an
placed in condition for cultivation.
0 e. NULL.
/. The Star Spangled Banner.
: The only changes of consequence that hay
9 been made in the Star Spangled Banner sine
tho tippa ~ q fret c,,u ,,.o -, H. $a1t~.